An alternating-current surface discharge type panel typical as a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “panel”) has many discharge cells between a front plate and a rear plate that are faced to each other. The front plate has the following elements:                a plurality of display electrode pairs disposed in parallel on a front glass substrate; and        a dielectric layer and a protective layer for covering the display electrode pairs.Here, each display electrode pair is formed of a pair of scan electrode and sustain electrode. The rear plate has the following elements:        a plurality of data electrodes disposed in parallel on a rear glass substrate;        a dielectric layer for covering the data electrodes;        a plurality of barrier ribs disposed on the dielectric layer in parallel with the data electrodes; and        phosphor layers disposed on the surface of the dielectric layer and on side surfaces of the barrier ribs.The front plate and rear plate are faced to each other so that the display electrode pairs and the data electrodes three-dimensionally intersect, and are sealed. Discharge gas containing xenon with a partial pressure of 5%, for example, is filled into a discharge space in the sealed product. Discharge cells are disposed in intersecting parts of the display electrode pairs and the data electrodes. In the panel having this structure, ultraviolet rays are emitted by gas discharge in each discharge cell. The ultraviolet rays excite respective phosphors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to emit light, and thus provide color display.        
A subfield method is generally used as a method of driving the panel. In this method, one field is divided into a plurality of subfields, and the subfields in which light is emitted are combined, thereby performing gradation display.
Each subfield has an initializing period, an address period, and a sustain period. In the initializing period, an initializing waveform is applied to each scan electrode, and initializing discharge is caused in each discharge cell. Thus, wall charge required for a subsequent address operation is formed on each discharge cell, and a priming particle (an excitation particle for causing address discharge) for stably causing address discharge is generated.
In the address period, a scan pulse is sequentially applied to scan electrodes (hereinafter, this operation is referred to as “scan”), and an address pulse corresponding to an image signal to be displayed is selectively applied to data electrodes (hereinafter, this operation is referred to as “address”). Thus, address discharge is selectively caused between the scan electrodes and the data electrodes, thereby selectively producing wall charge.
In a sustain period, as many sustain pulses as a predetermined number corresponding to the luminance to be displayed are alternately applied to the display electrode pairs formed of the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes. Thus, sustain discharge is selectively caused in the discharge cell where wall charge has been produced by address discharge, thereby emitting light in this discharge cell (hereinafter, sustain light emission in a discharge cell is referred to as “lighting”, and no sustain light emission in a discharge cell is referred to as “no-lighting”). An image is displayed in a display region of a panel.
In this subfield method, for example, in the initializing period of one of a plurality of subfields, the all-cell initializing operation of causing discharge in all discharge cells is performed. In the initializing period of other subfields, the selective initializing operation of selectively causing initializing discharge is performed in the discharge cell that has undergone sustain discharge. As a result, light emission that is not related to the gradation display can be minimized, and the contrast ratio can be improved.
As the screen of the panel has been enlarged and the definition of the panel has been enhanced, recently, the image display quality in a plasma display device has been demanded to be further improved. When the driving impedance changes between the display electrode pairs, however, the voltage drop of the driving voltage can change, and the emission luminance can change between image signals though the image signals have the same luminance.
Therefore, a technology of changing the lighting pattern of the subfields in one field when the driving impedance changes between the display electrode pairs is disclosed (for example, patent literature 1).
As the screen of the panel has been enlarged and the definition of the panel has been enhanced, the driving impedance of the panel is apt to increase. The difference in voltage drop of the driving voltage between a discharge cell formed near a driving circuit and a discharge cell formed far from the driving circuit is apt to increase even when the discharge cells are formed on the same display electrode pair.
In the technology disclosed in patent literature 1, however, it is difficult to reduce the difference in the emission luminance that is caused by the difference in voltage drop of the driving voltage between the discharge cell formed near the driving circuit and the discharge cell formed far from the driving circuit.